Need for Speed Unbound

About the Game

The game is set in a fictional city called Lakeshore City, which was loosely inspired by Chicago. The game is open world and features street racing with added Heat (from NFS Heat, one of the previous incarnations). Heat equates, roughly, to notoriety which is a good thing in this game, giving you lots of street cred and reputation – although it does bring down the – uh – figurative heat on you too, giving you a high profile with the joy-killing cops.
Each cop car in this game has its own strengths and weaknesses – look out for these differences and learn how to exploit them to outwit the law-enforcement driver. But don’t be complacent as you won’t beat them in a straight race – not often anyway, but there are other, (much more fun) ways to best them.
A big feature this time out is the licensed A$AP Rocky mode – you can style yourself in his fashions, and even win his own car from the rap star himself – if you’re good enough, that is – and listen out for his music in the backing track, alongside that of rap collaborative/ agency/ record label, the mysterious AWGE.
The game includes cross play so you can play with mates on different consoles. The game keeps on giving to you too – the developers promise that there will be a steady stream of new content coming through to keep players happy and engaged.

The Nitty Gritty

This game combines cel-shading (this involves cartoon-like shading on images, removing some aspects of realism by giving objects and people flat colourways, rather that the acutely accurate, minutely graded colours that you see in real life) – think realism with lots of anime elements, such as action lines, swooshes and wings that appear when your car is airborne (if this sounds terrible to you, you can toggle them off).

You can play single player mode, offline or online, by betting on other drivers or yourself, if you have enough cash for the buy-in. There is nothing like having skin in the game to make each race that little bit more personal! Otherwise you can choose multiplayer, which has a chilled sandbox mode allowing you and your friends to just explore and goof around, or you can join a race together – whatever you like.

There is also a story mode that you can tackle: an exciting narrative as you try to restore a friendship torn apart by a robbery at an auto shop. There is awesome car customisation, as you might expect from the franchise, and you can pack your garage with precision-tuned, custom rides to light up the streets with your unique style, exclusive fits, and a vibrant global soundtrack.

You can pull up to a Meetup (a street race) and show off your unique style with hundreds of cosmetic items to choose from, including exclusive gear from some of the world’s most pioneering fashion innovators. And you can extend that look to your ride, transforming your cars with unique wraps and cutaways for the ultimate legendary custom look.

How to Get to the Top

Play out the intensity of a real competition, working your way through all the stages of the race over four intense weeks, as you gear up for the big race by:

• Earning enough cash to enter the weekly qualifiers where you beat the competition
• Make your mark on the street racing scene with your fabulous style and
• Outdriving and outsmarting the cops, before you
• Get to enter the big race, The Grand – the main street race with a plum prize for the winner